author
Hong Ge
284–364
A Daoist thinker, physician, and writer from the Eastern Jin period, he is best known for works that mix practical medicine with reflections on self-cultivation and the search for transcendence. His writing opens a vivid window onto early medieval Chinese thought, where philosophy, alchemy, and everyday survival meet.
1 Audiobook
西京雜記
by Hong Ge
About the author
Born in the late 3rd century, Ge Hong was a Chinese writer, philosopher, and physician associated with the Eastern Jin dynasty. Sources differ on his death date, giving either 343 or 364, but they agree on his lasting importance as a learned figure whose interests ranged across literature, medicine, Daoist practice, and public service.
He is especially remembered for Baopuzi (The Master Who Embraces Simplicity), a work that helped shape later understandings of Daoism, alchemy, and techniques for cultivating life. He also wrote Emergency Formulae at an Elbow's Length, a practical medical text valued for its accessible remedies and its influence on the history of Chinese medicine.
What makes his work so engaging today is its range: he could discuss spiritual discipline and immortality on one page and practical healing on the next. That blend of big ideas and useful knowledge has kept his books alive for centuries.